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Camera Records in Time was formed in the summer of 2009 out of a desire to create an environment where photographers can habitually come together to support one another artistically and receive feedback about their work.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Kate Trenerry: Documenting Division in Israel/Palestine, Cyprus, and Northern Ireland

Boundary Way, West Belfast, Northern Ireland ©Kate Trenerry

Walls are built as an instrument of political partition to bring clarity and focus to sectarian conflicts within neighborhoods, terrorist attacks throughout cities, even all-out war across a country. I brought my camera to Israel/Palestine, Cyprus, and Northern Ireland to complicate and blur my understanding of these divided societies and the people who live in them.


Cupar Way, West Belfast, Northern Ireland ©Kate Trenerry

In early 2012, I set out to understand and document the effects of the Israeli Separation Barrier, the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus, and the Peace Lines of Northern Ireland on the places and people they divide. I spent a total of three months on the road, during which time I attempted to walk along as much of the barriers as possible.


Rural Checkpoint near Qalqilya, Palestine ©Kate Trenerry

Walls and borders imply a dualistic view of space, yet all of their power depends on how people interpret and interact with these spaces. Borders are where the rules change, if someone enforces them.

The Edge of the Buffer Zone, Nicosia, Cyprus ©Kate Trenerry
During my journey, I met people who were walls and people who were bulldozers. I encountered city blocks that were inviolable boundaries. I was entranced by parallel of lights in hazy distance that represented deadly borders. Walls are dramatic and easy to photograph, but the way they seep into the landscape and people around them are difficult for outsiders to detect, much less understand or document. My work serves as a record of my own travels in these borderlands as an attempt to document the everyday reality of these brutal barriers, but to also investigate questions and inconsistencies that arise from their attempt to create duality in modern political cases that are too complex to be cast in black and white.

Walajeh, Palestine ©Kate Trenerry
For more of Kate's work go to www.kateincolor.com

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